Alfie Carter ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Bonus Promo & Giveaway!

ALFIE CARTER

by

BJ Mayo

Published by Skyhorse Publishing

Pages: 288

Published: January 19th, 2021

Categories: Southern Fiction / Rural Fiction / Mystery

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The seemingly never-ending Cabinda War (1975—) has left multitudes dead in its wake and thousands of children homeless and orphaned.

Jackaleena N’denga, a young Angolan girl, has become the sole survivor of one specifically brutal village massacre carried out by a band of guerrilla boy-soldiers.

Jackaleena’s resilience leads her to an orphanage on the west coast of Africa, known as Benguela by the Sea, where she and other children are taken in and protected. Her brilliant mind and endless questions capture the heart of her mentor, Margaret, who ensures her that her survival thus far—especially being the survivor from her village—must mean she has big things ahead of her. When the opportunity arises, she must find her purpose.

Not without a plan, Jackaleena stows away on a mercy ship that has made its yearly visit to the orphanage and is now preparing to return to America. Her journey takes her across the ocean, into the arms of New York City's customs officials, and finally into placement in a temporary foster home in Texas.

Enter Alfie Carter—a workaholic, small-town detective who is also battling memories of his past. His life is forever changed when he meets a young African girl looking for her higher purpose.

Purchase: Skyhorse Publishing

BJ Mayo was born in an oil field town in Texas. He spent the first few years of his life living in a company field camp twenty-five miles from the closest town. His career in the energy industry took him to various points in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Louisiana, Bangladesh, Australia, and Angola West Africa. He and his wife were high school sweethearts and have been married for forty-six years with two grown children. They live on a working farm near San Angelo, Texas.

Visit BJ Mayo at his website: https://bjmayo.com/

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2/23/21	Promo	All the Ups and Downs
2/23/21	Review	Reading by Moonlight
2/23/21	BONUS Promo	LSBBT Blog
2/24/21	Review	Missus Gonzo
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3/1/21	Review	That's What She's Reading
3/2/21	Review	The Adventures of a Travelers Wife
2/27/21	Review	Bibliotica
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A Bend in the River ~ Audio Book Blog Tour Audio Review

Audiobookworm Promotions Tour

A BEND IN THE RIVER

BY LIBBY FISCHER HELLMAN

Narrated by Robin Rowan 

Length: 11 hours 19 minutes 

Publisher: The Red Herrings Press 

Released: Oct. 13, 2020 

Genre: Historical Fiction

So Others May Live ~ Audio Book Blog Tour Review & Giveaway!

SO OTHERS MAY LIVE

BY LEE HUTCH

Narrated by Siobhan Dowd

Audio Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Publisher: Brady L. Hutchison

Released: Dec. 31, 2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

In the space of a single night, four lives collide as Berlin staggers under the weight of British bombs. Mick, a Lancaster pilot, proposed to Grace on his last leave but one more mission stands in between him and the end of his tour. Grace harbors a secret, one which she fears might change the nature of their relationship forever. Unsure of how he will respond, she has decided to tell him upon his return knowing that to do so risks losing him forever.

Seven hundred miles away in Berlin, war-weary firefighter Karl is haunted by the images he's seen both on the home front and in Russia. Now he takes command of a group of teenage auxiliaries who find themselves on the front lines of Germany's defenses against a nightly rain of fire. On a call, he meets Ursula, a young woman who lives near his station. Karl quickly finds himself falling for her, unaware that she is playing a dangerous game, one which might place his own life in danger.

As the raid unfolds, they face choices which will forever change them, and those they love.

HALL WAYS REVIEW: AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: So Others May Live takes readers back in history to World War II and into the lives of two sets of people, who are supposed to be enemies. One set of the main characters is living under the command of Hitler and the Nazis who are sending air raids to London. The other set is in England, whose Royal Air Force is sending air raids to Berlin. Everyone is dealing with the consequences of those air raids, of communism, and the effects of war. Lines of loyalty are blurred as the very real human cost comes to light, and it becomes clear that only extreme measures can change outcomes.   

“The men spoke with the easy familiarity of those who had faced death together and survived. Rank did not matter to them.”

Author Lee Hutch has done his research and his experience as a firefighter brings readers a harrowing story filled with the vivid ugliness of war. Based on the cover blurb, I was expecting the story to be more about relationships between the characters and less about individual struggles, both internal and within their roles in society. Be warned: So Others May Live is realistic historical fiction, and nothing is sugar-coated. It is about survival, but not as much about the relationships that help one survive. Readers do get a glimpse at the camaraderie between the pilots, and the camaraderie between firefighters, and those parts were touching and powerful. However, because the stories are so grim, I really needed more about the relationships and the threads of hope that sustain humans in dark times.

“Faces came and went in the mess. New officers often went down before Michael even learned their names. Most went down within their first five missions.”

While the narration is outstanding (more on that below), I think So Others May Live might have worked better for me had I read it with my eyes, not my ears. Hutch’s descriptions are often richly detailed, pulling readers into the scenes (bomb shelters are “an olfactory nightmare”), but there are several places where the story drags, and readers are being told a litany of historical facts – it’s information overload. And in these scenes, there isn’t enough action to hold interest unless you are a huge history buff.  Another warning that the story is realistic: some of the descriptions of the aftermath of bombings bordered on putrid. This is not to say that the author was unnecessarily graphic – there is nothing gratuitous –rather, descriptions are realistic.  For someone like me (who avoids realistic war films and books), I think reading with my eyes would have helped me step away and handle the scenes better, but honestly, I probably wouldn’t have picked this to read because it’s too painful and true to history and without even a glimmer of hope.

So Others May Live is told in four parts, at times through a limited omniscient point of view and at other times, through each of the four main characters’ perspectives. This strategy ultimately shows that victims of wars, no matter which country they are in, have more in common than not, and that whether civilian or military, they often feel that it’s not their war but the battling governments’ war.  Human casualties are expected; they are relegated to statistics in ledgers.

Part four of the book was the strongest and the action is ramped up to make for some edge-of-your-seat moments. There are few loose ends by the end of the story, but there is nothing neat about the resolutions to each of the characters’ stories. The story is authentic, so expect a realistic conclusion that will weigh heavily on your heart and for sensitive readers, the melancholy is pervasive.

ABOUT THE NARRATION: Siobhan Dowd is a master narrator. (or naRATEor, as she would say.) She performed multiple accents: British -- including cockney -- German, Scottish, and even Louisiana-in, and regardless of male or female voices, she gave a unique identity and personality to the characters.  Her pacing is perfect, and I was able to listen at regular speed. Technically, the recording was excellent with no glitches or hiccups, and the sound being even throughout.

Thank you to Audiobookworm Promotions and the author for providing me an audio download in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.

I received this audio book as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Lee Hutch. The gifting of this audio book did not affect my opinion of it.

Award winning author Lee Hutch grew up on the Texas/Louisiana border. As a child, he enjoyed reading history books and hanging around fire stations. As an adult, he entered the fire service and worked as both a firefighter and then an arson investigator before an injury led to his retirement. Along the way, he picked up a BA and an MA in History and an MS in Criminal Justice. He now teaches history for a community college in Southeast Texas. He loves books, cats, boxing, the Red Sox, and the New Orleans Saints.

His historical interests include the history of the fire service, particularly how firefighters have adapted to wartime conditions, the American Civil War, and the World Wars. When he's not in the classroom or in his office, Lee can be found reading or listening to either a Red Sox or a Saints game on the radio with his cat Anastasia. His next novel is set in Civil War era New York.

Website

I record High Quality Voiceover in variations of my native South London accent - I can offer both bright and enthusiastic commercial reads, or a more laid back and enigmatic explainer style. 

I have lots of experience in Explainers, E-Learning, Commercials, Audio Books, and more.

I work in VO full time, and deliver high quality audio from my fully equipped home recording studio in South West London, always including amends or pick ups as needed to ensure complete client satisfaction. 

I use Source Connect or Cleanfeed for remote record-directed sessions and I can travel in and around London and the South East for studio based jobs.

Please have a look (and listen) around my site and get in touch by email, phone, or via social media if you’d like any more information on my services or to book a job.

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4 the Love of Audiobooks
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Tarnished Brass ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Review & Giveaway!

TARNISHED BRASS

by

MAX L. KNIGHT

  Genre: Historical Fiction / Novella / War 

Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.

Date of Publication: September 20, 2019

Number of Pages: 114

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The war in El Salvador as seen through the eyes of a U.S. Army officer, a guerrilla leader, and a refugee turned gang member

Patrick Michael Moynihan finds himself returning to the small Central American country where, as a young impressionistic junior officer, he was thrust into the middle of a brutal civil war.

Miguel Alejandro Xenias, once a member of the ruling elite in El Salvador, recalls his change of heart, advancement within the guerrilla movement, and his new-found hope for the country now that the FMLN is in power.

Antonio Cruz, seeking a new life in America, finds only a different kind of hatred and conflict, joins the street gang MS-13, and returns home bringing with him a new kind of warfare.

These perspectives spotlight an ongoing struggle in El Salvador that continues to impact the immigration crisis on our southern border and the spread of gang violence throughout the United States.

More than just a history of the war in El Salvador, a conflict that ended almost thirty years ago, Tarnished Brass gives voice to those who fought and those who only wanted to escape the violence.

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HALL WAYS REVIEW: Tarnished Brass is a novella that comes in at around a hundred pages of story, but author Max L. Knight fits in an incredible amount of information. The book not only informs readers about events of the past, it also reminds readers of the far-reaching effects of war, even decades later, even across oceans.

While I was happily navigating high school and college through the eighties, like most kids in that stage of life, I was oblivious to what was happening in El Salvador (and most of the world outside my bubble). I lived a safe and privileged life while El Salvador lost the decade as a war-torn country plagued by fighting factions – one of them aided by funding, training, and weapons courtesy of the United States.

The archbishop urgently petitioned those in power to alter course.

“In the name of God and this suffering population, whose cries reach to the heavens more tumultuous each day…cease the repression.”

His words were met by a sniper’s bullet to the heart.

Many of the chapters in Tarnished Brass are filled primarily with historical information that gives readers facts about the political and military climate and the war’s ever-worsening impact on the Salvadorans. The only pause in El Salvador’s war was when an earthquake interrupted it and displaced hundreds of thousands of people who were already suffering. Knight does a good job of keeping the plight of the poor as a constant thread running through all the chapters. The poor never win in war -- or in times of peace. The strength of the book is in Knight’s world-building: the poverty, the destruction, the darkness of El Salvador.

Tarnished Brass is well-written and cleanly edited, and its contents are engaging. The structure of the book is unique, vacillating between storytelling and fact-telling. There are chapters that give readers insight into the lives of the three main characters, but none of the characters are ever fully fleshed-out or given much depth. (The exception was a chapter dedicated to the psychological profile of a side-character, Diana, which was profoundly sad and fascinating.) There are other chapters in which the purpose is solely to inform, and only a few sentences, either at the beginning or the end, tie in one of the story’s characters to the scene. The story of Tarnished Brass is the war; the characters within are somewhat peripheral but do serve to soften the edges of what could easily convert to a nonfiction piece.

I was most appreciative that the author not only included a glossary of military terminology, but he tells readers first thing that it’s at the back of the book. (I never think to look first.) While it is most helpful for those of us not in-the-know, the book is still full of military acronyms and jargon that are defined once and used often – and I found myself flipping back to figure out what was what and who was who.  Those who are students of history and politics and military ops won’t have any issues and will probably enjoy that the book has a more factual, less fictional slant.

As a more informed, but still ridiculously under-informed adult, reading Tarnished Brass helped me tie current headlines to the past. It was particularly interesting to learn the origins of MS-13, the now international criminal gang that started as a group to protect Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles. Following character Antonio’s grim but realistic story was eye-opening and the most powerful of the stories in Tarnished Brass. It was in Antonio’s story that I saw glimpses of Knight’s storytelling and characterization prowess that he showed in Palo Duro.

Tarnished Brass educates readers of not only an important piece of world history, but also the impact of the United States’s foreign policy, then and now. Intelligently written, Tarnished Brass is a quick way to get informed while also fulfilling a reader’s need to escape into fiction.

Thank you to the author and Lone Star Book Blog Tours for providing me a paperback copy in exchange for my honest opinion – the only kind I give.  

Max Knight was born in Panama and grew up in the Canal Zone and in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in English. A Distinguished Military Graduate, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and served twenty-four years in the Air Defense Artillery retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

In addition to assignments within his basic branch, Max also specialized as a Foreign Area Officer in both the European Theatre of Operations (Germany and Greece) and within USSOUTHCOM (Panama, Honduras, and El Salvador). He received the Defense Superior Service Medal for his service in El Salvador during that country’s civil war. Max earned his master’s degree in government from Campbell University, and retired from the Army in 1997.

Upon retirement Max was hired by RCI Technologies in San Antonio and became its Director of Internal Operations. He also was the first volunteer docent at the Alamo working within its Education Department. However, following the tragic events of 9/11, he became an Independent Contractor and spent the next ten years as a Counterintelligence Specialist in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Central America before cancer forced him to quit.

Max has since published a memoir, Silver Taps, and a novel of westward expansion, Palo Duro. He resides in San Antonio with his wife, Janet “Gray.” They have three surviving children; Lisa, Brian, and Sean, and three grandchildren; Tony, Nicholas, and Cecilia Marie.

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VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

10/29/19	Promo	All the Ups and Downs
10/29/19	Excerpt	Chapter Break Book Blog
10/30/19	Author Interview	That's What She's Reading
10/30/19	Review	Hall Ways Blog
10/31/19	Scrapbook page	Missus Gonzo
10/31/19	Review	Librariel Book Adventures
11/1/19	Playlist	The Clueless Gent
11/1/19	Review	Forgotten Winds
11/2/19	Review	StoreyBook Reviews
11/2/19	Review	Reading by Moonlight

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